Why The Most Of The Airlines And Jets Are White In Color?

Most of the commercial airlines and jets are generally white in color because of many reasons: white color provides a thermal advantage, it helps in easier inspection of cracks and dents on the fuselage and is also cost-effective and white planes tend to have a higher resale value than colored ones.

In this article, We compiled a list of important, interesting, mind blowing and amazing facts about Airplanes. So, let’s enjoy it!

There are mostly 2 reasons:

Scientific reasons:

Advantages to the aircraft

Thermal advantage are many times we heard that in winter season we should wear white colour because it reflects 99.99% light thus preventing heat from building up.

Fuselage dents and cracks are easily visible as their colour is darker than that of the plane.

It is easily visible in case of any mishaps and accidents.

Economic reasons:

Advantages to the airline company.

It reduces the expenses and increases the profits of the company.

Heavy investments in painting and if we paint the airplane than the weight of the plane increases which leads to heavier and it requires more fuel.

White airplane has higher resale value rather than the colour airplane has lower resale value. At the time of resale the company should paint the airplane in white colour because of surplus investments need to be made in getting it painted white for all the scientific advantages.

Mostly planes have high altitude and moves through different atmosphere because of that the colour of the planes gets faded and it requires regular touch up and regular touch up it means it requires high maintenance.

So now we know the reason behind the commercial planes being white is just not confined till scientific advantages but also has economic benefits.

Airlines were painted mostly white because it is easier to keep them clean and white also reflects heat away from the skin of the airplane and they don’t get as hot inside while sitting on the ramp.

Sure the majority of airplanes are white but some have stripes, decorations, and names in different colours, but the base colour behind those add-ons is almost always white.

The colour white is a terrific reflector of sunlight, and reflects almost all the light that falls on it, unlike other colours, which absorb some of the light.

White looks better and when it gets old and dull, it still looks good compared to a dark coloured plane. Dark colours fade faster, dull, and when paint flakes off it just looks terrible.

If you paint your airplane in a colour other than white, it will absorb sunlight and heat up the body of the airplane and negatively affect its resale value as the buyer will have to repaint the plane which will further add more weight to the plane.

Painting an airplane is not like painting a fence. It requires a considerable investment, both in terms of money, manpower, and time and it has a huge investment in a competitive market.

If you have a coloured airplane (parked in your own private hangar) and you want to sell it, you should expect to make a little less than if it was a white airplane.

A white-coloured airplane, on the other hand, doesn’t appear significantly different, even after spending a considerable amount of time in the air.

A white-coloured airplane have high visibility and better safety and reflects solar radiation and radiated heat from tarmac, just like sunblock.